[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A Taliban group commander was killed in an kaboom triggered by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted by the group’s own fighters in northern Kunduz province of Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the incident took place in Dasht-e-Archi district, leaving 4 Taliban group members dead, including a commander of the group.

MoD further added that the slain Taliban capo has been identified as Tofan who was killed along with three other Taliban fighters.

[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least 7 top commanders of the Taliban group were killed in an Arclight airstrike in southern Helmand...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province of Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Tuesday.

MoD further added that the Arclight airstrike was carried out in Garamser district, leaving 7 Taliban capos dead and 7 fighters of the group maimed.

According to MoD, Mullah Mujahid, Mullah Agha Mohammad also famous as Mullah Mashar, the former shadow district chief of the group, Mawlavi Mustafa and Mawlavi Hedayat were among those killed.

The Talibs group has not commented regarding the report so far.

Helmand is among the volatile provinces in southern Afghanistan where the Taliban snuffies are actively operating in its various districts and often carry out insurgency activities.

A huge weapons cache belonging to the Taliban group was discovered and destroyed in this province last month as the group was looking to use the weapons for executing attacks against the Afghan forces.

Officials in the 215th Maiwand Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) earlier said a factory producing Improvised Explosive Device (IED) for the Talibs was destroyed during an operation of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in this province.

[al-Manar] Two civilians were killed by mortar fire in Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula on Monday, according to a local security source.

Three people were also injured when mortar shells struck two homes in North Sinai’s city of Rafah, the source said anonymously due to security concerns.

Egyptian authorities have yet to comment on the attack, for which no group has claimed responsibility.

Northern Sinai has seen an uptick in militant attacks in recent weeks in which dozens of soldiers were killed.

The Egyptian security forces continue to wage a fierce campaign — involving elements from both the police and the army — against what they describe as Sinai-based “extremist groups”. Egypt’s army-backed authorities say they are battling the Welayat Sinai (Province of Sinai) group, which is said to have links to the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) terrorist organization.

"Haftar is bombing al-Fatayeh to coerce residents to leave." A source from Derna Shura Council indicated.

Clashes found their way into the district on Monday evening in Derna’s Martuba suburban town, where Haftar’s militias and Derna Shura Council fought following the declaration of al-Fatahyeh as a military zone by the self-styled al-Mukhtar Operations Room.

Light and medium weapons were used in the festivities between the two parties in the vicinity of Omar al-Mukhtar University building in Derna and no casualties were reported, media says.

Concurrently, the member of the High Council of State (HCS) for Derna, Mansour al-Hasadi, issued a statement urging the Tobruk-based House of Representatives and the UN-proposed government’s Presidential Council to take a decisive stance and stop the bombing of Derna.

"You should put the kibosh on the constant shelling of Derna even if you would enlist assistance from the international community." He told the HoR and the PC, adding that the UN that is sponsoring the political agreement must take up its responsibility by implementing the items of the agreement, most importantly, ceasing armed conflicts and protecting civilians.

Derna has been undergoing an inhumane siege by the Dignity Operation forces for months with recurrent Arclight airstrikes following the liberation of the city from IS Lions of Islam by the city’s revolutionaries.

[IsraelTimes] At least 50 Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... operatives were reportedly killed and dozens more maimed by Egyptian army artillery attacks in the Sinai Peninsula.

According to Sky News Arabia, the incident -- which has not yet been confirmed by official Egyptian sources -- took place south of the town of Sheikh Zuweid, in the northern Sinai.

The Islamic State’s presence in the peninsula, a group known as Sinai Province, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and its leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... in 2014. The group draws much of its support from Bedouins in the Sinai, who have long felt neglected by the Egyptian government.

[AlAhram] Unidentified gunnies freed 21 prisoners in the southern Mali town of Banamba late on Sunday in what Mali's justice minister described as a "terrorist attack".

Mamadou Ismael Konate said on Monday the six attackers had wanted to release "two terrorists" but said they had already been moved to another town.

Konate said one prison guard had gone missing after the raid but he provided no further details.

An army front man said the attack had occurred around 2100 GMT on Sunday.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack but Islamist groups such as Ansar Dine...a mainly Tuareg group that controlled areas of Mali's northern desert together with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and MUJAO in early 2012... have stepped up their insurgency in Mali this year, carrying out more than 60 attacks on United Nations...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... and other targets since May and spreading south into areas previously deemed safe.

"I heard gunshots as I was getting ready to go to bed around 2300," said Banamba resident Yacouba Doucoure.

"Later I learned there was an attack against the army camp and the prison."

The attack on the army camp could not be immediately verified by Rooters.

A soldier for the U.N. mission known as MINUSMA was killed in an attack on a convoy in the Mopti region of central Mali on Sunday, MINUSMA said in a statement.

Islamist groups hijacked a separatist Tuareg rebellion in 2012 to seize major towns in Mali's vast desert north and declare sharia, or Islamic law.

Forces from former colonial power La Belle France drove them back a year later, but they have kept bases in remote desert locations.

[Ynet] Heavily armed gunnies riding motor bikes and other vehicles raided a village and killed five soldiers in Niger near the border with Mali early on Tuesday, the interior ministry said, amid signs of a growing Islamist insurgency in the region.

Dozens of attackers entered Banigabou, about 20 km (12 miles) from the frontier before dawn - gunshots rang out for two hours, said residents.

The ministry did not name the raiders, though Islamist holy warriors based in Mali's desert north have been pushing south towards its capital and over borders in the fragile Sahel region... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... into Niger and Burkina Faso...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other....

[AA.TR] Two non-combatants were killed, three soldiers injured and 100 houses were set on fire early Tuesday when Boko Haram... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... fighters raided a village in Cameroon...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...'s Far North Region, a senior military official told Anadolu Agency.

The attack took place in Limani village near the Nigerian border, Col. Bouba Dobekreo, commander of a regional joint force said.

The soldiers were patrolling between the villages of Wambeche and Limani when a mine planted by Boko Haram bandidossnuffies went kaboom!, Dobekreo added.

Less than two weeks ago Boko Haram raided a village in the same region, killing three villagers and setting fire to more than 50 houses.

The bully boy group has been waging a war against Nigeria and neighboring states that has seen at least 20,000 people killed and 2.7 million displaced over the last seven years.

[REUTERS] Arab coalition forces killed six al Qaeda bully boyz and enjuggedDon't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! four others during a raid in southern Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...on Tuesday, residents and a security official said.

The raid took place at a village west of the city of Mukalla on the Arabian Sea, the Yemeni security official told Rooters.

The Arab coalition was formed early in 2015 to fight Yemen's Iran-allied Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...group after it took control of the capital Sanaa and forced the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee into exile.

Its mostly Gulf Arab members are also now battling Islamist bully boyz in Yemen, including al Qaeda and Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....Taking advantage of Yemen's 20-month-old conflict, several hundred al Qaeda gunnies have seized swathes of territory in rural and tribal areas of the impoverished country.

[IsraelTimes] Police in Kosovo say they have arrested two people for alleged involvement in terror activities on behalf of the Islamic State group. Seven others were arrested over the weekend in Kosovo and four in neighboring Albania as part of the same investigation. Authorities say the suspects all were detained for allegedly funding or recruiting for the Islamic State group in Syria and for allegedly planning attacks in Kosovo and other Balkan countries.

Authorities in Kosovo and Albania say none of their citizens have joined extremist groups in Syria and Iraq during the last year, although Kosovo officials think about 70 of their citizens are active there.

[DeutscheWelle] The new funds will help would-be migrants in their African home countries, said Germany's foreign minister. The latest contribution pushes Berlin's humanitarian budget to 1.28 billion euros for 2016.

Balochistan has been experiencing incidents of violence and targeted killings for over a decade. The largest province of the country by area, is home to a insurgency by ethnic Baloch separatists and banned religious outfits.

[Daily Excelsior] Two Army jawans were killed and five others injured when a mortar shell fired by Pak troops hit their vehicle at Janghar in Nowshera sector of Rajouri district, where heavy exchange of shelling and firing took place between Indo-Pak troops during the day while several houses and power transformers, household items and crops were also extensively damaged.

Troops launched massive counter offensive against Pakistain and inflicted significant damage on the enemy destroying their three posts namely Battal, Pimple and Bump across Salhutri between Balakote and Mendhar sectors. Four Pakistain army personnel were eliminated in the counter action that was necessitated to prevent civilian casualties as all these three posts were targeting civilian areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in Mendhar and Balakote sectors for past few days.

Official sources told the Excelsior that an Army vehicle, which was on way from Nowshera to forward posts of LoC was hit by a mortar shell in Janghar area this afternoon. The two Army jawans sitting on front seats of the vehicle sustained serious injuries while five others sitting behind had very minor injuries.
Continued on Page 49

[DAWN] Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah announced on Monday that the Counter Terrorism Department tossed in the clinkDrop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! two suspected snuffies belonging to the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... for their alleged involvement in the assassination'>assassination of famed qawwal Amjad Sabri, personnel of the army, Rangers and police and several other killings on sectarian grounds.

The announcement by the provincial chief executive, who also keeps the portfolio of home affairs with him, came at a presser held at the Central Police Office. Inspector General of Police A. D. Khowaja, CTD chief Sanaullah Abbasi, Bloody Karachi...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... police chief Mushtaq Mahar and CM’s Adviser on Information Maula Bux Chandio were also present.

The CM said that a CTD team led by Raja Umer Khattab arrested the two suspects -- Ishaq alias Bobby and Asim alias Capri -- in a Liaquatabad area on Monday and seized three sub-machine guns, two snatched MP-5 rifles, 27 pistols, hand-grenades and improvised bombs.

The CM said that a forensic analysis of the weapons confirmed that the same weapons had been used in 28 high-profile cases.

[DAWN] Three out of eight Indian High Commission officials suspected of involvement in terrorist and subversive activities in Pakistain left for India on Tuesday.

Anurag Singh, Vijay Kumar Verma and Madhavan Nanda Kumar, allegedly members of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW... India's Research and Analysis Wing, Pakistain's equivalent of the Boogie Man...), left for India earlier today on flight EK613 via Dubai.

Rajesh Kumar, Amerdeep Singh Bhatti, Dharmendra Sodhi, who are also alleged members of RAW, are still in Pakistain, along with Balbir Singh and Jayabalan Senthil, who are said to be Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB) operatives.

The FO during a press briefing last week revealed details of the eight Indian 'diplomats' in Pakistain, saying that a number of "Indian diplomats and staff belonging to Indian intelligence agencies RAW and IB have been found involved in coordinating terrorist and subversive activities in Pakistain under the garb of diplomatic assignments."

The FO said the alleged RAW and IB officials are suspected of handling Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) factions, fueling secatarianism in Pakistain and creating unrest in Balochistan...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it..., Sindh, and Gilgit-Balistan (GB).

"They [India] are desperate to hide their crimes against humanity from the international community’s scrutiny," the FO had said.

Islamic State (IS) fighters have abducted 295 former Iraqi Security Force (ISF) members from around Mosul and forced 1,500 families to retreat with them back to the militant stronghold, the United Nations human rights organisation says.

The abductions reportedly took place last week as Iraqi coalition forces backed by US-led air strikes pushed an offensive to recapture Mosul from IS militants.

About 100 of the former ISF officers were taken at around midnight on November 3 from Mawaly village, which is about 20 kilometres west of Mosul, while a further 195 were abducted between November 1 and November 4 from villages in Tal Afar district.

The abducted families were being taken from their town to Mosul airport, Ms Shamdasani said. The United Nations also had information that at least 30 sheikhs were abducted in Sinjar district in early November and taken to an unknown location — it was trying to verify a report that 18 of them had been killed on November 4 in Tal Afar district.

(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Islamic State militants are now closing the borders with Syria to prevent their Iraqi fighters from escaping battles to the Syrian city of Raqqa, a senior intelligence officer at al-Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary forces said Tuesday as the extremist group continues to succumb to defeats from attacks by Iraqi joint forces.

Nazem al-Jugheifi, a Hashed al-Shaabi intelligence commander in Haditha, Anbar, said ISIS closed Tuesday the Qaim border crossing with Syria. “With that measure, the group seeks to prevent the escape of its Iraqi fighters and their families from Annah and Qaem to Raqqa in Syria,” he said, referring to ISIS’s stronghold in Syria.

“The group forced its Iraqi members to stay at their locations and fight,” he added.

Security sources in Anbar had told Alsumaria News that ISIS militants and their families had been escaping Annah region to Syria. Other reports had said that the group executed a number of members who failed to stand up to fighting in Mosul.

ISIS has been sustaining severe losses in lives and ground since Iraqi joint forces, assisted by US air forces, launched an offensive in mid October to retake Mosul, the group’s last bastion in Iraq. Security and allied paramilitary forces are also workin g to liberate other areas held by ISiS across the country.

(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – The self-proclaimed Islamic State is now revealing the identities and nationalities of its suicide bombers as means to “boost the morales” of its fighters, Alsumaria News reported on Tuesday.

The group has unveiled the identities of 20 suiciders who carried out bombings against security forces in Mosul over the past three days, according to Alsumaria, which explained that those are holding seven Arab and Western nationalities.

“ISIS media outlets intensified its activities over the past hours inside Mosul, especially at districts located on the eastern coast that witness the group’s greatest presence,” Alsumaria said. “ISIS media spelt out the identities of 20 suiciders who carried out booby-trapped vehicles and explosive belt attacks on several security locations over the past 72 hours.”

“Those included an Emirati national for the first time, nicknamed Abu Khattab,” Alsumaria explained. “Through declaring the identities of their suiciders, ISIS are seeking to raise the devastated morales of their fighters caused by the flagrant losses they had sustained in several cities and villages,” Alsumaria added.

Iraqi joint forces and US aircraft continue operations to liberate Mosul from ISIS. The campaign has been largely successful so far with the group reportedly losing a lot of ground and lives.

“ISIS are trying to gain the sympathy of Hawijah people by giving out a bar of soap and half a kilo of lentil,” Alsumaria said, adding that people are shunning the fighters’ advances.

Alsumaria added that the group is possibly preempting any attempts by civilians to attack its members or locations.

The group’s so-called “Diwan al-Mal” (treasury), providing the supplies to citizens, urged them not to give ear to news about the fall of ‘the state of Nineveh.

The group took photos of the supplies to its sympathizers to give an impression that it provides food supplies to residents of the area, Alsumaria explained.

“Humanitarian conditions in the area are worsening due to hiking prices of food supplies, with all roads linking the area with Nineveh and Salahuddin cut,” Alsumaria added.

Hawijah fell to ISIS in June 2014, becoming one of its most important havens after Mosul. Many families of ISIS fighters have reportedly abandoned houses in the area they had previously taken over as Irai security and paramilitary forces advance towards the city to liberate it.

(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – One hundred headless dead bodies were found inside the Faculty of Agriculture south of Mosul, Nineveh, as federal police toured the liberated neighborhood of Hammam Al-Alil, media officials with the Ministry of Defense reported.

“Iraqi forces, having liberated Hamam al-Alil neighborhood, and inside the Faculty of Agriculture, ran into a new crime discovering one hundred dead bodies of citizens,” the officials reported, blaming the massacre on extremist Islamic State fighters.

“Specialized teams will be sent to investigate that heinous crime,” said the officials.

Since it took vast parts of Iraq in 2014, ISIS has become notorious for beheadings and brutal executions of its local opponents and foreign workers, posting shocking footage of the executions on its internet outlets.

The city of Mosul is currently the stage for battles between ISIS fighters and Iraqi joint forces seeking to clear the city of ISIS. Mosul is centrepiece of ISIS’s proclaimed “Caliphate”, but the group ceded reference to the city as ts capital under the brunt of losses it has sustained due to the security offensive.

This internal migration comes just two days after the SDF, a pluralist secular coalition, launched the Euphrates Wrath Operation. The campaign’s ultimate goal is the isolation and capture of Raqqa city – the Islamic State’s (ISIS) de facto capital in Syria.

Civilians in Raqqa countryside have reportedly begun evacuating their villages to avoid being used as human shields by ISIS militants. The SDF has reminded civilians to be cautious as jihadists have a long history of using human shields.

Each IDP has his or her own harrowing story of flight. Those who spoke to ARA News described starvation, fuel shortages and extreme forms of persecution in the would-be Caliphate.

Fatima, a 44-year-old woman from Raqqa, told ARA News: “After violence intensified in our area, we escaped. We came here looking for safety.”

Since the launch of the Euphrates Wrath Operation on Sunday, the Syrian Democratic Forces have captured 11 villages in an area measuring approximately 15 km².

The SDF General Command told ARA News that ISIS has retreated from major parts of Raqqa’s northern countryside. Rather than trying to stand their ground, the extremist group is now relying on mines, car bombs and suicide squads.

Speaking to ARA News, several SDF officers expressed concern for the endangered civilian population. They believe that the number of displaced civilians may increase dramatically once their fighters push into the Raqqa city.

Khalil Muhammed a 61-year-old IDP from Raqqa, told ARA News: “We thank the SDF for helping us. We’ve arrived at the safe haven now. We have suffered a lot.”Video report at the link

Capturing Bashiqa would be a final step in securing the eastern approaches to Mosul, three weeks into an offensive by Iraqi forces to retake the country’s second city.

Iraqi troops have also seized the town of Hamam Al-Alil, south of Mosul, and Tuesday investigators carried out an initial examination of a mass grave site discovered in the area.

Bashiqa was under the “complete control” of Kurdish peshmerga forces, Jabbar Yawar, secretary general of the Kurdish regional ministry responsible for the fighters, said.

“Our forces are clearing mines and sweeping the city,” Yawar said.

An AFP correspondent on the outskirts of Bashiqa said clashes were ongoing, with three air strikes hitting the town and gunfire and an explosion heard.

The peshmerga said there were still some suicide bombers and snipers there, and that about five percent of Bashiqa remained under terrorists’ control.

Iraqi forces have been tightening the noose around Mosul since launching the offensive on October 17, with elite troops last week breaching city limits.

Iraqi forces scored another victory against Daesh on Monday by establishing full control over Hamam Al-Alil, about 15 km from the edge of Mosul and the last town of note on the way to the city from the south.

They said a mass grave was found at an agricultural college in the area, with the offensive’s Joint Operations Command saying “100 bodies of citizens with their heads cut off” had been uncovered.

An AFP journalist Tuesday said body parts and bones were visible among rubbish dumped there.

Men in Iraqi security forces uniforms used ropes to pull two bodies, one headless, from the grave, and also removed a decapitated head.

“Today, the team conducted an initial examination,” said Mohammed Taher Al-Tamimi, an Iraqi Cabinet official.

Al-Tamimi said the victims had been blindfolded with their hands and feet bound.

He said around 25 bodies were initially visible, but investigators believed there “very large numbers” of corpses there.

Dhiyab Tareq, a 32-year-old from the area, said he had heard shots when Daesh carried out executions at the site.

“I was sitting close to the door and heard the gunshots,” Tareq said, adding that the next day Daesh members boasted about killing security forces members.

Daesh’s rule has been marked by atrocities including mass beheadings and other executions that it has documented in photos and videos that its supporters share online.

The United Nations said Tuesday that terrorists’ “forcibly moved about 1,500 families from Hamam Al-Alil town to Mosul airport” on November 4.

The UN has warned for weeks that Daesh is making civilians living in districts around Mosul move into the city.

(IraqiNews.com) Diyala – Iraqi media outlets reported on Tuesday, that a member of al-Hashed al-Shaabi militia was killed and two others were wounded in the explosion of an improvised explosive device, northeast of Baqubah.

Alsumaria News stated, “This evening, an improvised explosive device exploded targeting a patrol in the orchards of al-Zour area (35 km northeast of Baqubah), killing a member of al-Hashed al-Shaabi and wounding two others.”

“Joint security detachments started to search the area of incident,” Alsumaria added.

Iraq is witnessing an extraordinary security situation with continuous military operations to liberate the ISIS-held areas.

(IraqiNews.com) Salahuddin – Mayor of Sharqat in Salahuddin province Ali al-Dawdah announced on Tuesday discovering two mass graves in the district.

Dawdah said in a press statement, “One of the district’s residents found human remains while burying one of his relatives, and after informing local authorities they discovered a mass grave near al-Makhazen area in Sharqat district.”

(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Tens of Islamic State fighters were killed and many others were wounded in airstrikes by Iraqi F16 and Sukhoi fighters in Mosul, Nineveh, and Rawa, Anbar, media officials with the Ministry of Defense said on Monday.

The F16 airstrike in Mosul, ordered by Iraqi national intelligence services, targeted a huge ammunition cache in the eastern section of the city, totally destroying it, and killing 12 ISIS fighters, media officials with the Ministry of Defense reported.

Iraqi joint forces, assisted by Kurdish Peshmerga troops and international coalition forces, continue a major, weeks-old campaign to liberate Mosul, ISIS last stronghold in Iraq, dealing the group serious losses in lives and equipment.

In Rawa region, Anbar, Sukhoi fighters pounded five locations used by ISIS as shelters, wounding nine of the militants and destroying eleven of its vehicles, according to the officials.

Rawa had fallen to ISIS in mid 2014. Government and tribal forces are preparing for a widescale operation to liberate the region.

(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A drone airstrike killed on Monday Islamic State’s so-called “military commander of the states of Iraq and Diyala,” according to media officials with the Ministry of Defense.

The commander, nicknamed Abu Mariam, was killed in a drone attack in Tarimiya, north of Baghdad, the officials reported.

ISIS has been witnessing several losses in lives and space since Iraqi joint forces and US-led coalition forces began an extensive campaign in mid October to liberate ISIS-held regions, most notably the city of Mosul, Nineveh, the group’s most outstanding and last bastion in the country.

Reports confirmed that the group lost on Monday its senior propaganda movie maker, Shehata al-Masry, and its chief treasurer, Fares Abu Bakr in security offensives in Mosul.

The group had also ceased to refer to Mosul as the capital of its proclaimed “Caliphate” and is reported to have been transferring its fighters’ families outside the city.

(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A civilian was wounded when an IED blast rocked a street leading to Al-Muthana Airport in central Baghdad, Alsumaria News reported.

The civilian was “accidentally passing by at the moment of the explosion,” the network said, adding that the man was transferred to a nearby hospital.

Since the US invasion in 2003, Baghdad has occasionally witnessed booby-trapped cars explosions, suicide bombings and IED explosions, besides attacks targeting civilians and security workers, leading to the death and injury of scores of people most of the time.

The wave of violence increased when Islamic State militant extremists took over large parts of the country in 2014.

Minutes earlier before the explosion, an employee at the Ministry of Education was killed by gunfire from unknown attackers outside his residence at al-Sadr city, east of Baghdad. Reasons for the assault are still to be investigated.

[AA.TR] Kurdish Peshmerga forces Tuesday "entirely liberated" Iraq’s town of Bashiqa northeast of djinn-infested Mosul... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn..., a Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) official has said.

Jabar Yawar, head of the KRG’s Peshmerga Ministry, said the district had been entirely purged of ISIS elements after Peshmerga forces captured the town center Monday.

Peshmerga fighters, he said, were currently clearing the area of landmines and booby-traps planted by members of the terrorist group.

According to Anadolu Agency correspondents in Bashiqa, festivities continue to break out sporadically between Peshmerga fighters and Lions of Islam holed up in homes and tunnels.

The majority-Ezidi town of Bashiqa lies some 12 kilometers (roughly 8 miles) to the northeast of Mosul, ISIS’s last bastion in northern Iraq.

The Sick Man of Europe Turkey...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has a longstanding military training mission at the nearby Camp Bashiqa, where Turkish soldiers have trained both Peshmerga fighters and local tribal volunteers in combat techniques.

In recent months, the mission’s presence in northern Iraq has led to a degree of tension between Baghdad and Ankara amid calls by some Iraqi politicians for Turkish troops to withdraw from the area.

In mid-2014, ISIS captured Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, before overrunning vast swathes of territory in the country’s north and west.

Recent months have seen the Iraqi army, backed by local allies on the ground and the U.S.-led air coalition, retake much territory, especially on Mosul’s outskirts and in Iraq’s western Anbar province.

[Jpost] A suspected Palestinian terrorist Wednesday morning attempted to carry out a stabbing attack against IDF soldiers stationed near the West Bank checkpoint of Hawara, located south of Nablus, according to initial reports.

In early-morning raids Tuesday, Israeli troops shut down two workshops that were allegedly used to produce illegal weapons in Jenin and outside Hebron, the army said.

The raids were part of the army’s recent increased effort to curb the production and sale of illegal guns in the West Bank. Thus far this year, the army says it has shut down 37 illegal gunsmithing workshops and confiscated more than 370 weapons.
Continued on Page 49

The Russians are back
[AAWSAT] Air strikes launched by regime and allies air power in Syria, next to artillery fire has reportedly killed at least 20 people, including 10 children, in the largely opposition-held Syrian province of Idlib on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor, said Russian or Syrian regime warplanes pounded the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing seven children and two pregnant women. Warplanes and government artillery also killed 11 people in the village of Baarbo in the southwest of the province, the monitor reported.

“The Russian Defence Ministry has denied information reported in multiple foreign media outlets about alleged strikes by the Russian Air Force in the region of Khan Sheikhoun near the city of Idlib,” Russia’s TASS news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying on Tuesday.

Syria’s war pits authoritarian Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias, against an array of internationally-backed opposition groups.

Idlib contains the largest populated area of Syria controlled by the Syrian opposition – including nationalist groups under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA)and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

[al-Manar] Syrian army and the allied forces managed on Tuesday to regain full control over the 1070-Apartment complex and the surrounding farms and hills southwest Aleppo city, amid a continuous counter-terrorism operations across the country.

A military source said that restoring control over the 1070 complex was achieved after army units carried out military operations and engaged in heavy clashes with terrorists of Al-Nusra Front, the “Turkistani Party,” and other terrorist groups affiliated to the so-called Jaish al-Fatah.

The source added that 10 SUV vehicles equipped with machineguns were destroyed during the operations, in addition to capturing a number of vehicles including armored ones, killing tens of terrorists, and injuring others.

The source pointed out that army units are chasing the remaining terrorists who are fleeing the area while engineering units are dismantling the explosive devices and landmines that were planted earlier by the terrorists in the area’s buildings and streets.

In Daraa, army units carried out operations against gatherings and fortifications of terrorist groups affiliated to Al-Nusra terrorist organization in a number of neighborhoods in Daraa City and its western countryside.

In Daraa al-Balad, a military source reported that an army unit killed a number of terrorists, injured others and destroyed one of their fortified positions in precise bombardments against their gatherings, adding that one of the terrorists’ radio-controlled aircrafts was shot down while flying in the surroundings of the area of Bilal al-Habashi Mosque.

An army unit also carried out bombardments against a gathering of terrorists to the northeast of the silos in al-Yadouda village, 5 km to the west of Daraa City, destroying a number of terrorists’ fortifications and hotbeds and an amount of their arms and ammunition.

In rural Damascus, army units established control over the route extended from south Drousha toward Khan al-Sheeh in Damascus countryside, and destroyed one terrorists’ command center and four military vehicles.

In Hama, 27 terrorists were killed and 30 others were injured in Syrian airstrikes and artillery fire on gatherings of terrorists affiliated to Jaish al-Fateh in Hama province’s northern countryside.

Moreover, Syrian airstrikes and artillery fire targeted fortified positions and concentrations of terrorists in the city and its northern countryside, killing and injuring 87 gunmen and destroying 15 of their vehicles.

[WASHINGTONPOST] Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... fighters launched a wave of boom-mobiles in northern Syria on Monday as U.S.-backed forces made the first moves in a long-awaited push to retake the murderous Moslems’ de facto capital.

The Kurdish-led military operation, announced Sunday, seeks to isolate the city of Raqqa in preparation for an assault that could deal a devastating blow to the Islamic State -- which is also fighting Iraqi-led forces in the northern Iraqi city of djinn-infested Mosul... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...The two cities represent critical hubs for the Islamic State, and the twin offensives could cut off routes for supplies and reinforcements. In a rare audio recording released Thursday, the Islamic State’s leader, His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us..., urged hard boyz to fight to the death in Mosul.

The rush of boom-mobiles that met the alliance, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), offered an early taste of how ferocious the battle for Raqqa may become. The blasts occurred as the forces pushed south from the towns of Ain Issa and Suluk, about 30 miles north of Raqqa.

[FRANCE24] Both The Sick Man of Europe Turkey...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and their Kurdish foes in Syria have argued that they should lead the battle to drive the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) group out of Raqqa. But the bitter rivals are more concerned with keeping each other in check than tackling the jihadist bastion.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) made their move on Sunday, announcing the start of their offensive to capture the IS group's de facto capital. The coalition ‐ which includes Arab groups but is dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) ‐ engaged in skirmishes with jihadist fighters north of Raqqa, and warned Turkey against interfering with the operation.

The long-expected move has angered Ankara, which also claims it should lead the battle for Raqqa. Turkey sees the YPG as an appendage of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), its mortal foe that has fought for decades for independence for Turkey's Kurdish minority. Turkish authorities accuse the Kurds of seeking to take over Arab lands, including Raqqa. They are calling for time to train Arab forces to liberate the city.

According to Fabrice Balanche, a Middle East expert and visiting fellow at the Washington Institute, neither side has the means ‐ or the will ‐ to tackle the jihadist bastion. "For the Kurds, Raqqa is an insurance policy against Turkish aggression," Balanche told FRANCE 24. Conversely, "Turkey sees Raqqa as a pretext to break up Kurdish territory and prevent the establishment of a Kurdish state," he added.

Balancing act
Among the multiple actors in the Syrian conflict, the YPG and its allies have emerged as the most potent ground force in the battle against the IS group. In pushing toward Raqqa, they hope to cement their standing as the West’s indispensable partner in Syria. Indeed, the US and its allies have welcomed news of the Kurdish-led offensive, dubbed "Wrath of the Euphrates", and promised air support.

The international coalition battling the IS group is eager to keep the holy warriors on the defensive in Syria and Iraq, where it is helping local forces, including the Kurdish peshmerga, recapture the northern city of djinn-infested Mosul... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn.... La Belle France, in particular, wants to neutralize the jihadist group’s capacity to strike abroad, with the anniversary of the November 13, 2015, attacks in Gay Paree looming. Western intelligence agencies believe such attacks are planned in Raqqa.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.